Dovetail patterns-American Idiot by Green day

This article builds upon the concept of the three layers of a song. If you are not aware of this concept please read this article here first.

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Sometimes a riff played in the opposite space of the melody such that they "dovetail" into each. Note the following:

(Riff ending with B)Don't wanna be an American idiot.
(Riff ending with Gb)Don't want a nation under the new media.
(Riff ending with B)And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
(Riff ending with Gb)The subliminal mind F### America.

So we could start the riff pattern as A-B-A-B and the same pattern is used by the melody. So together we get the following:
A A' (pronounced A and A prime)
B B'
A A'
B B'

Also note that the riff makes it a perfect place to use the "me first" density layer pattern. The guitar plays and then the band jumps in after the first riff completes.

Meta patterns

All music patterns derive from a few "meta" patterns. The meta patterns themselves are because of a rule that multi #1 hit songwriter Steve Seskin calls the "rule of 2." Simply put, the rule states that if you do something more than 2 times it creates boredom in the listerner. It could be the "why" in the most common musical lyric forms.
A-B-A-B-C-B or Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus
A-B-A-B (solo) A-B or Verse-Chorus- Verse-Chorus-(solo)-Verse-Chorus

Understanding the why behind the patterns will allow your music to be logical but not predictable which is the end goal of any song.

Common meta melodic patterns are:

• A-B or call and response
• A-B-A-B'(C) -which is call-answer-call-a slightly different answer
• A-A-B- which is the most common blues form
• A-A-A-B- which is really a different way to express the above pattern
• A-B-B which is really a deceptive call response pattern

It is important that every pattern creates a "hole" pattern where the previous pattern breathes or rests. For example:

"Mary had a little lamb" (rest or hole)

"Little lamb" (rest or hole)

"Little lamb" (rest or hole)

"Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow"(small hole)

Each pattern creates a "figure ground" like some of the great artwork by M.C. Escher.

//to do Escher painting